Early Sunday morning I was involved in a car accident that left my poor Mustang’s entire front end looking a little worse for wear. Spent most of Saturday night at a buddies downtown penthouse watching UFC 73. What began as a great night turned out to be far less fortuitous. I was driving home and the streets were pretty empty at 2:30am. There was only a mini-van in front of me and a taxi cab in front of it. Nobody was speeding and I was certainly not in a rush to get home.
All of a sudden the taxi cab decides to brake and make an illegal u-turn. The mini-van had to brake hard to avoid hitting the cab and I too had to make an emergency brake. Although I braked with ample time, the ABS kicked in and my car slid right into the rear of the van. There was nothing I could do to avoid the collision but since I was the caboose in this train wreck, I am deemed liable. There goes my safe driver discount 
The taxi cab driver leaves the scene of the accident . . . very nice. The mini-van driver and myself come out of our vehicles to make sure we were all okay and to assess the damages. Luckily, nobody was hurt and it appears that the mini-van only suffered minor scratches. My Stang looked like it took the brunt of the damage, since it was so low, it basically nosedived under the rear bumper of the van. The driver of the mini-van was very kind and was sorry about my car, he knew it was all because of the cab driver that the accident happened.
I dropped off the Stang to the body shop this morning, they gave me an estimate of one week for the repairs. My courtesy car is an import, a Honda Civic sedan. This is the only incidence where you will catch me alive driving a Civic!
Posted on July 10th, 2007 by Leo
Filed under: Lucid Thoughts
This is like Deja Vu. At least they didn’t make you drive a Hyundai!
lol…American Muscle to Rice Burner.
I can’t say to much since I use to have a Mustang, then a SVT Focus, now looking at buying a Tiburon.
Ouch…sorry to hear about your car, that really sucks the big one. Hey, don’t forget to put up a “POWERED BY HONDA” banner on the front of your Civic along with VTEC emblems on the side!
Lol, then I’ll do a Ricer fly-by of Ed Lau in his suped up Mazda3
Total ricer fly-by. Don’t forget to hit the hazards after you do it.
It looks like you have a Rustang now. Glad to hear you’re not hurt, man. She’ll be good as new.
Sorry to hear about your ’stang! But at least you are okay, right!
Wow this really sucks! Have you tried to find out who was driving the taxi around that time of the night?
Looks like most of the damage was just to the fender… hope it didnt damage the radiator or anything else. Have they given you an estimate yet on cost?
Actually there is no damage to the fenders. All the damage was to the front bumper, hood, grill and headlights.
He who drives a Civic, drives alone.
haha that is so true…..
Too many Civics are on the road!!
HAHAHAHHA! Oh man…
The new Civic looks nice though…but only the coupe…not the sedan.
Ah, bumper, yeah thats what i meant lol
*Rosie & Derrich - Thanks, I’m thankfully okay!
*Russell - If we got a taxi number or something it may have a chance but I couldn’t see the taxi beyond the mini-van and the van driver didn’t get the cab info before he took off.
*John -
It always seems like there is a moron that causes the accident and he gets away without being involved and doesn’t even make the effort to stop. I was just reading a post on one of the Scion forums where a guy was on the highway and some clown cut across two lanes of traffic and this guy swerved to miss him and slid into the median and spun around a few times yet the other guy just kept going.
At least you are okay but it sucks to be the one liable when it was all really caused by someone else.
At times, we are unable to control the situation or circumstances that we are in. We curse or swear by the name of God and @#$%…. in the moment of anger but when we think back of the incident, we smile and think that i’m still surviving at the end of the day. That was a close one and thank God, you are fine.
Thanks to everybody for their kind words and support. Again, the important thing is that everybody involved is okay. At least my car gets new parts and a paint job
MFwerd.
Have you looked into get a after market front clip, since you have to have a paint job anyway?
How was the van? Too bad you could not work it out not using the Insurance option. You could say that it was under a $1000. It’s not. But your not a mechanic (nudge nudge) so your guess is exactly that a guess.
The police show up in your City to do reports on that? Did you get a Gift Certificate for the troubles of say following too close? Was their skid marks? Did a statement from the Van driver confirm the fact that it was due to illegal turning, lack of signaling from the cab that caused the chain reaction? How was the weather, road conditions etc. If you did get a ticket all that is important. Challenge it anyway. It puts the time of conviction on delay and you can renew your insurance first and honestly tell them that you do not having any tickets yet because it is not registered until you complete the court stuff.
Just a tid bit of information. If you want or need more you can email me.
Damn I hate cabs!!!!!!
[...] Chiang - Leo recently busted up his Mustang in an accident that was sort of a Deja Vu of my own accident with my Old Impreza. Luckily, it was [...]
just heard about this over from stephen’s blog . . . . hope you’re ok . . . just fyi . . . fix that civic up the right way and you won’t miss your v8 that bad! . . this comes from the land of SoCal Imports!
The Civic is a courtesy car, I’m giving it back as soon as my Stang is fixed. Suping up a Civic sedan is as ridiculous as Ed Lau suping up his Mazda 3
There’s no replacement for displacement!
[...] a bit of a frantic day for me as well since I was planning to pick up my Stang from the body shop. I called the shop early in the morning to inform them that I would not be able to come in today [...]
Those are some depressing pictures..